I'm sorry that Avalon is ending in such a summarized way but it's nice to know how it ends and I would just like to say Thanks Josh. Avalon was one of the first webcomics I read and is probably why I got so into them: I'm reading over 30 at the moment and considering starting some more.

I'm happy for Joe and Helene and for Ceilidh and Phoebe. Ryan and Deirdre do not have to deal with a long-distance relationship. Yay!
And Alison is socializing a little. Hooray! And the dryer sheet gag returns for a finale. Brilliant. I have some questions though.

Why is Nancy so happy? I thought she was upset that she couldn't ruin their relationships herself as revenge. Is it just because of her boyfriend or is there something else? Who is her boyfriend? Roman? For that matter, who is Alan's new girlfriend? What happened on the road trip? Is Ceilidh still doing media studies? What about Gar?

I'm sorry to see the strip go out like this, but I'm glad my fear that it would be left unresolved wasn't realized. When I started reading the strip, one of the youngest active forum members was 14. She's old enough to be in college now. I can't even remember my old username. I was afraid that the cast would be left in media res so long that I would be too old and jaded to care what happened to them. That didn't happen, and I'm thankful for it.

To say that Avalon was a major part of my life would be overstatement, but I doubt I would have stayed interested in webcomics were it not for the depth of character and neck-snapping plot twists that made Avalon the best webcomic on the Internet in its prime. Avalon's theme of a future of opportunities was driven, as far as I could tell, by Josh's own nostalgia. Thousands of his readers, myself included, happened across Avalon as we inhabited the same high-school environment Josh looked back upon, but he was artist enough that the presentation never rang false. It didn't serve as much of a guide for the rapidly shifting loyalties and fragmenting relationships that seem so important in high school, but it was enough that someone out there understood, survived, and was able to give expression to that teen angst without making it bombastic or puerile. Read any high schooler's livejournal and you find desperation, intrigue, love, forgiveness, and hatred in overblown proportions. These are the poor articulations of that which matters more to the authors than anything in the world. They are as earnest as they are naive and as honest as they are excessive, and no one takes them seriously but each other.

And, for a while, Josh Phillips. Thank you for putting something beautiful into the world.

It's not as if I have anything to say which hasn't already been said (in words far more eloquent than any I could muster), but this seems as good a time as any to finally contribute something to this forum.

I'm disappointed to see Avalon end this way. I would have gladly waited to see the comic given a proper conclusion, however long it took. However, I'm glad to see that Josh hasn't forgotten us entirely (not that I ever lost faith or anything), and I suppose I'd be sorry to see the end of Avalon under any circumstances...

At any rate, I can still take some solace knowing that the archives are just a click away.

Thank you, Josh, for all the wonderful memories (no exaggeration). I wish you luck on any and all of your future endeavors.

Josh Phillips wrote:What Drag mentions is something I was thinking myself... there are probably loads of plot threads left dangling after this "conclusion." If anyone needs some clarifications, say so, and I'll fib my way out as best I can.

Hey, I think I know you! Aren't you the guy who tried to set Phoebe up with his brother?!
If that's your intention, no, thanks. I first have to settle some things for myself.
'Sides, dunno about the job market in the Arizona desert.

Reading the closure made me feel something in my stomach... something I hadn't felt while looking at a monitor since Avalon was updating regularly... for me, that's the mark of a good creative job.

I don't know if you have a gift for whatever you do now, Josh, but you have a very special gift for writing. Even if you never do anything else from today on, you have created something. There's now a story in the world that didn't exist before, and that makes the world a greater and richer place than it was before. That's more than what 99% of the human beings born on this planet can say.

Those of us with whom you've shared your story, those of us who have seen your characters live and grow, those of us who have been flooded in the depth of their feelings are greater and richer too, so I have to thank you.

It is my opinion that your job at making your characters live and develop is still unmatched in the webcomic medium and is only matched by the top 8 or 9 percent of written manga (and I subscribe to 8 japanese phonebooks so I have a lot to compare it with.)

In the end, you gave your characters a happy life. That's good because they deserved it. You do too, so make sure you give yourself a happy life too. I wish you the best!

OK, I said I'd write more when I had time to think. I started thinking about this over in the IW forum, so I decided to run with it. It's a really long ramble, I'm afraid--I forget who once apologized for writing a long letter because they didn't have time to write a shorter one--but here goes:

I've never thought of myself as being particularly creative, and even if I did come up with a creative brainstorm, I never seriously considered sharing it with other people, and didn't really think it was even feasible.

Until I got hooked on web comics.

Because I saw people telling stories without the need to go through The System to get published. No publishers, no comic syndicates, no sponsors--just pen, ink, a computer, a scanner, and a web site.

And the stories got me--enough to read and re-read the archives regularly. Sure, I like the newspaper comics. Some of them appeal to my sense of twisted humor. Some take me back to a particular time and place. Some are fun to share with my kids now. (Like the time I read one of my all-time favorite Calvin and Hobbes strips--the "crushing grip of reason" strip--to the kids. By the time C&H were shouting "Well *this* is you!" and making weird noises and faces at each other--so of course I had to act out the noises and faces--I'm not sure who was laughing the hardest--me or the kids.)

But they seldom made me feel something in my stomach (well said, lironmiron) like some of my favorite web comics, particularly Avalon. I only started reading Avalon recently, so virtually all of my reading has been via the archives. But even without the built-in suspense from waiting for each strip to be released, I still got hit in the stomach pretty regularly. My jaw nearly hit the floor when Joe and Ceilidh were in her bedroom. I'd like to say I was thinking, "HOLY SH*T, CEILIDH, WHAT ARE YOU *DOING*?!?" In reality, my reaction was more like Joe's: "it'll--it... hotter... I... ho...hoooooooo", only less coherent. No, I wasn't harboring--I guess I should say "harbouring" on this forum--mad Ceilidh PSL because of that cartoon (well, not much); I was really worried for her. And I was worried for her again when Joe broke up with her after he met his dad.

That's right, I was worried about a collection of lines on paper.

That's *not* something that happens often in newspaper comics, and I'm not talking about the nudity. (Although come to think of it, I can't seem to think of a PSL-generating newspaper comic.)

And thanks to web comic forums, I discovered I'm not the only one moved by the storylines. Not only are people moved by web comics, they're moved to respond. Some respond by talking about the characters; several people wrote very well-reasoned, well-thought-out defenses of Joe and Ceilidh after the bedroom episode. Some are moved to write their own stories--either using the Avalon characters directly, or drawing on them for inspiration. Some are moved to draw their own Avalon comics (and/or Avapr0n), or even write music (I've got Sd'A in my iTunes...hmm, think I'll fire it up now).

What's more, they can share their work with the world, thanks to the Web, personal Web storage space for those people who have it, and folks like Packy who provide Web space for those people who don't have it.

And some people find they like it so much, they start their own web comics.

To make a *very* long story short, creativity seems to breed creativity around here.

(On a side note, I'm a computer geek by profession. Actually, I'm a software developer by profession; I'm a computer geek just because. Stereotypically, geeks aren't supposed to be "creative" unless you count "creative when designing whatever we're supposed to be designing." That stereotype is wrong on multiple levels, but even if it's right, we've sure helped a lot of other people be creative. I can't claim to have personally contributed anything to the creation and rise of the Internet, the Web, Web forums, scanners, and graphics programs. After thinking about the creative environments made possible by all those things, though, I'd have to say I'm very proud of my brothers and sisters in the profession who did contribute.)

Getting back to the point I misplaced several paragraphs back, I've even found the inklings of a few stories floating around in my head, and the odd notion that it would be cool to do a bit of drawing myself.

But I wasn't kidding the other day about the piles of school work and Scout stuff lurking over both shoulders. Throw in family and office responsibilities, and there just doesn't seem to be enough time to try my hand at writing or drawing. <sigh> I'm not sure I'll ever find time, either.

That's why I respect (and probably envy) the people who have done it. For all the stories and pictures floating around in my head, I've put exactly nothing down on paper or hard drive. Josh, on the other hand, has put something on paper and hard drive--not just once, but several hundred times. And he's done it well enough to generate frequent gasps, cheers, PSL, and other shocks to the stomach, and inspire a lot of other artistry as well.

Balfegor wrote:Anyhow, truth be told, the most shocking detail is that Joe goes around with a handkerchief in his pocket. Is this a Canadian thing? I mean, I carry around a hanky, but I'm super-old-fashioned.